Processing of flexible substrates, such as plastic films or foils, is in high demand in the packaging industry, semiconductor industries and other industries. Processing may consist of coating of a flexible substrate with a desired material, such as a metal, in particular aluminum, semiconductors and dielectric materials, etching and other processing steps conducted on a substrate for the desired applications. Systems performing this task generally include a processing drum, e.g., a cylindrical roller, coupled to a processing system for transporting the substrate, and on which at least a portion of the substrate is processed. Roll-to-roll (R2R) coating systems can, thereby, provide a high throughput system.
Typically, a process, e.g. a physical vapor deposition (PVD) process, a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, and a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process, can be utilized for depositing thin layers of metals which can be coated onto flexible substrates. However, Roll-to-Roll deposition systems are also experiencing a strong increase in demand in the display industry and the photovoltaic (PV) industry. For example, the use of touch panel elements, flexible displays and flexible PV modules results in an increasing demand for depositing suitable layers in Roll-to-Roll coaters, particularly with low manufacturing costs. However, such devices typically have several layers, which are typically manufactured with CVD processes and particularly also PECVD processes.
The arrangement of several CVD, PECVD and/or PVD sources in one or more process chamber(s) needs an excellent and efficient process. Commonly, the deposition of complex thin film layer structures is performed subsequently in different R2R coaters, each one designed to the needs of the special deposition technique. However, this concept results in high costs of ownership (CoO) for the manufacturing equipment.
Examples of products made of a coated substrate are OLED displays, which have received significant interest recently in display applications in view of their faster response times, larger viewing angles, higher contrast, lighter weight, lower power, and amenability to flexible substrates, as compared to liquid crystal displays (LCD). In addition to organic materials used in OLEDs, many polymer materials are also developed for small molecule, flexible organic light emitting diode (FOLED) and polymer light emitting diode (PLED) displays. Many of these organic and polymer materials are flexible for the fabrication of complex, multi-layer devices on a range of substrates, making them ideal for various transparent multi-color display applications, such as thin flat panel displays (FPD), electrically pumped organic lasers, and organic optical amplifiers.
Over the years, layers in e.g. display devices have evolved into multiple layers with each layer serving a different function. Depositing multiple layers onto multiple substrates may require multiple processing chambers. Therefore, there is a need in the art for an efficient method and apparatus for processing substrates in a flexible tool platform.
In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a vacuum processing system and a method for mounting a vacuum processing system that overcomes at least some of the problems in the art.